You can throw to a high school catcher in the winter, or throw batting practice to your sons, but those activities do not prepare the body for a full-bore session alongside Major League players who are about three-quarters of the way through spring training.

Fielding bunts, covering first base on balls hit to the right side, backing up bases on relays from the outfield ...

“There’s soreness,” Pettitte said. “It’s been a while and I’m a little bit older.”

It’s not that Pettitte, who will turn 40 on June 15, was complaining, but when someone said to him, “How do you think Jamie Moyer feels?” Pettitte laughed and said, “No kidding. That makes me feel better. He’s, what, 10 years older than I am?”

Indeed, Moyer, who is trying to make the Colorado Rockies this spring after missing last season due to elbow surgery, is 49 years old. If he can win one game this year, he will be the oldest pitcher in major-league history to do so. Nearly a decade ago, at around the same age as Pettitte, you could say Moyer was at his very best as a pitcher, winning a career-best 21 games at the age of 40 in 2003. So it should come as no surprise that Moyer believes Pettitte can win big upon his return to the mound.

“He’s coming back for his own reasons,” Moyer said last week via telephone from Rockies camp in Scottsdale, Ariz. “The fire has either been re-lit or his batteries have been recharged. I tip my hat. If you feel like you have the ability to play and the desire to compete, and you’re ready to do all the preparation, then why not? Obviously he’s been a great pitcher.”

As to why Pettitte retired when he was coming off such a good 2010 season, Moyer can only speculate. “Unfortunately, he had some distractions,” Moyer said, alluding to Pettitte’s admission that he and Roger Clemens used human growth hormone. “I hope that’s been all cleared up and he can focus on baseball. I’m sure that took a lot of focus away from the game for Andy. But it sounds like that’s all behind him.”

Unlike Pettitte, Moyer never voluntarily walked away from baseball, though he strongly considered it in 2006. That was when the Mariners, after years of being competitive, were locked in a downward spiral and it appeared Moyer’s magic, long crafted on the ability to locate pitches and change speeds, no longer seemed to be working.

“The desire to win didn’t seem to be there, and it wore on me,” Moyer said. “I had a conversation with my wife about retiring. And the next day, the Mariners asked if I’d honor a trade. I ... had the right to turn it down, but I said, ‘Sure.’ Two days later I was traded to Philadelphia and that rejuvenated my batteries.”

Now, even after missing a year, Moyer insists he’s fully charged.

“I’m trying to keep up with the youth in this Rockies clubhouse,” Moyer said. “There are some things I can’t keep up with, honestly, on the physical side. But from the pitching side and the mental side of the game, I feel like I’m right on top of everything.”

Raul Ibanez, who played with Moyer in Seattle and Philadelphia, and is trying to prove to the Yankees that he can still hit with authority as he turns 40, said of his old teammate, “Jamie Moyer is the poster child for will, determination, drive and everything else that’s great about this game.

“There’s no magic formula. Everything always comes back to his heart. He believes it’s just as good to throw a pitch that’s 73 miles per hour that he’s committed to than for a guy to throw a pitch at 93 that he’s not committed to. He’s got things that have nothing to do with ability, velocity or movement. He’s going to will you out. If you were trying to survive on an island, you want to be with Jamie, because he’s going to figure out a way to get you food, shelter and fire.”

In the Yankees’ spring clubhouse, Pettitte walked toward the trainer’s room for some of the typical maintenance therapy a pitcher gets on a regular basis. He was told that Moyer, who is having trouble hitting 80 mph on the radar gun this spring, is getting people out and looking like he’s got a shot to be in the Rockies rotation.

“Knowing how to pitch can take you a long way,” Pettitte said. “I know I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t learned how to pitch to both sides of the plate with all my pitches. And I think I can still do that.”

Said Moyer: “All Andy needs to do is take his time, get himself game-ready and see where it takes him. It’s hard as a player, when this is what you’ve done your whole career, and you think you’re still competitive, it’s hard to walk away from it.”